Planooraph co



A. ADKINS.

MEANS FOR DESTROYING ENEMY SUBMARINE-CRAFT.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 7. I9IB.

Patented J 1115T 8, 1919.

w MN A. ADKINS.

MEANS FOR DESTROYING ENEMY SUBNIARINE CRAFT.

- APPLICATION man MAR.7.191s.

` "1.309,891. Patented July s, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

To all whom/it may concern.' n Be it known that I, ARTHUR v ject of theKing AkoflGrreat Britain, residing ADKINS, subat Leicester, in the county of Leicester,

- England, havey invented certain new and "fuseful Improvements in or Relating to ifxlVfeans for Destroying Enemy Submarine Y Craft, of which the `following is a specificai. tion, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This kinvention relates to means for dey' lstroying enemy submarine craft and comprisesan arrangement of submarine mines forthis scribed. The invention concerns explosivefbooms orglike defence systems of the kind com- ."posed Vof connected mines. and particularly that :form where the drag or action of the vesselupon the'. connecting means between Vthe mines causes the latter to automatically assume a position in proximityto the sides i or hull of the vessel 2 of the mines Booms of .this character usually consistv vfoffafseries orrow'of mines connected by a cable, 4the arrangement being floated upon purpose' as will be hereinafter deprior to the explosion I iornear thesurface ofthe water or sunk to a certain depth.

l Qbviouslyfor the purpose of protection against surface boats a boom of the kind ref ferred Jtoabove must be somewhere near the surface `ofthe water and in this position would notbe suitable for intercepting submarine craft traveling. submerged. To serve for' protection against submarines traveling submerged the slngle series boom would requireto be sunkto acertain depth but even when sol arranged-it might not be effective .-i'against submarines traveling submerged at a greater or lesser depth. '.Hence witha system of connected mines such as referred to armultiplicity of the booms would be re- I :quired sin deep waters for affording adel-quate' protection against submarme craft fsuch booms being situated at varying depths toform a vertical defensive system to inter- ?cept submarines at any depth. Y

. The Vobject of -ithe present invention is to .aform'anexplo'sive boom or defensive sys- 1 f'temrof connected mines which: will be effecf tivelat any depthl and therefore appropriate for.l defensive purposes against submerged submarine craft or for catching and destroyfin sama he invention consists of an explosive Specicaton of Letters Patent.

ARTHUR ADKINS, or rnronsrnn, ENGLAND.

For. DEsTRoYING ENEMY sUnMAnINE enum.

Y Ratente'a Jury s, 1919.

Appunonmea March 7, 191s. serial No. 221,000.

" boom Or arrangement adaptedfor catching and destroying or for defensive purposes against submarine craft, characterized by vertical Vseries of mines which are spaced apart and anchored, the mines in each verftical series'being'connected, and'one series being connected Vwith another` series by suitable connecting means (such as nets or cables) adapted to intercept submarine craft traveling submerged and `when engaged and dragged upon by such craft to draw one or more mines of the adjacent connected series into close proximity to said craft .tov facilitate the destruction of the latter by explosion of the mine or mines.

- The distinguishingfeature of the in'vention is that instead of usingv single mines connected together Vas lby a cable, vertical series of connected mines are connected by y a net ora number of cables so that -thearrangementwill catcha submarine traveling at any depth, the -mines in each vertical series-being so spaced apart as to be situated at different depths for'this purpose.

The connected vertical series are each so anchored as to admit of .being readily dragged out of position when a submarine encounters the connecting means, thus allowing the mines to be drawn toward the vesselwithout giving :an-indication in the latter that it is caught. v

The mines employed are ofthe type which are exploded by contact. By using mines vof this character premature explosion z'. e. 'an explosionof thev minejbefore the latter hasbeen drawn close -to the vessel such as might occur in the-case of a mine exploded by thel pull on the cable and when the vessel was traveling slowly, is obviated.

To enable theinvention lto be clearly understood, reference will be made in the following further description to the accompanying drawing wherein is shown, by way of example, an arrangement of mines according to this inventionV suitable for the purposes already specified.`

In the drawing f Y Figure 1 is a perspective viewV representing-the arrangement of mines sunk into positionY in the s ea.A

Figs; 2, 3 and 4f (drawn to afsmaller scale than' Fig. 1) aref diagrammatical plan views illustratingthe action' of the connected series of mines when intercepting andvdestroying a submarine will be lia-ire-l 1 matter described; 1

The arrangementy represented in Fig. 1 consists of a number of submarine mines connected by cables 2 in siichiafmanner as to form a plurality of vertical series l?, 1b,

lc and so on, each verticaly .series"beingr'an-VV chored by a'suitable Weight 3 or-otherdevice. #The vertical series of mines ar'econnected together in pairs: bym'eans; ofsrnets- 4 which eXtend from oneseries to another as shown, itfbeing observed that ythe con-Y nected pairs are separate from each other,.

Y for instance the series 1b4 and liltformv one connectedrpair, the series '121ev another, VtheV Aseries 1f, lg'an'other Yand soon; Itvwillalso be seen that theconnected pairs of:V vertical seriesare positioned in such a manner that f'the openings between Ythe V`unconnected ,-,fseries l? and ld, l@ Vand 1h, 4arecovered by jthe connectedpairs lb and `l, lfJandvlg, thus 1 2o while each connectedfseries canY operate independently ofthe others, no passage of a submarine through th'e arrangement is pos- It will be understood series offmines extend front the ocean bed to; sea level Aor just below.1` The `number of mines 1n Veach verticalV series will of course depend uponthe depth of water.

The operation of thev arrangement 1s illusltrated in Figs'. 2, 3 and ,4: where connected` pairs of. vertical series .of mines as shown m Fig. l, are-represented 1n; plan, 5i/represents an 'enemy Ysubmarine traveling lin the Y direction of the arrow itscourse" .being shown by the dot and dash lines. As shown v.in Figi 2 it qoproaches thelarrangement off,`r` mines and is intercepted by the-,net 4 conf Y l'necting the mines Ilb and lCV which'fas'the ,Y v result of'ithe sub-m'arines lcontacttherewi'th series of Ymines as shown by full line'sin' is Vdisplaced and drawswith it the YattachedV Fig. 3,A thedotted lines indicating Ythe original position of the-two series and their t connecting-inet, As the; boat carries the net 4k forwardjwith 'itjthe,movementaorway `.causes Vthe mines'` VVbyVA the rdragf'ofy vthefn'et thereon to move inward toward the boat Vfas indicated bythearrows'in Fig. ,3, until as the submarineY continuesv on itscourse one or more mines in one or both=of the series arrangement suchY as described ywill be effective for the purpose-of interceptingl lja submarine approaching it from eitherside Y- and practicallyat anyangle. Thedistance orderthatno matter atfwhat point between Vtherefore come'intV contact with same.

horn'sof the mines. l .Y The mines-'shouldbe soplaced'astovallowfir 'l so Y' may 'be caused: by currentsfand,.avoidpcon# :tact ofone series with another. 'The weights the connected series th ft'makslfcoiaact with the connecting means one? at 1eastof-- l ,the "mines ,will swing around on aV radius shorter than'the length of-theboat an necessar 4the connecting net g between the,-;

serieso'fmines maybe supportedfby'one or'V Y moreoatsFig. `l) and the net maybe Y provided with anchoring means 7 atj the" 75 bottom.V rPreferably the net isVY attached to the connecting ,cables 2 and not tofthe mines themselves so as, to; be'clear of thezdetonating Y for a Y certain amount of` movement 4,which- 3 or anchoring means should on the one hand be sufficiently heavy to retain the difff A VferentY series of mines in proper position'but Y on the otherl 'handrl they lshouldv be; light enough :to yield 'tothe dragefectedbythe contactof ajtraveling submarine with,-the 1" form a screen may be obtainedby crzofnnecting` y connecting meansbetween the niinesgObff.. v`-viou'sly in determining the"` requisiteiweight Y Y. -nf Ythe anchoring means ,thestrengtlf of 'prevailing currentsf (if any)f=the"weight fof Y f fthelv vnetor connecting meemsl and1cb1esfa8- l well .as thepbuoyan'cy of the mines are factorsjf v which. must beitaken intoV consideration.V 1 li g In another arrangement, not 'showmasysj Y tem of connected Yvertical series 4o fmin'es f 1 a number. of such series in"acontinuousrom 111 Y Abut in4 such an arrangement the numbeijrof V 1 series in the' row "mustunot beiso greati asfto L impede the `movement of I anfyg'pair of-series l` toward thesides of the cra Y Caused b f .drag -on the l connecting VmeansV when craftmakes contact with'fsame, 1

lche f The system 'of connected mines ^`heijeinfde-V scribed may Vbenen mfom; booms fQr de Y fending .coasts,harborsfandrivers, and while l Y necting means, the invention is not-'tobe'con` .contacttherewithf ".1 v

W hatI clainfthenis i L'Anexplosive boomadapt'ed for catchi l Y Y ing and* destroying. submarine craft, {com- .prising v.a :plurality of vvertical strings; of'1` v {'mines,vl saidstrings beingjspaced"apart'from swmgmto contact with the--boat'thereupon V one another andl anchored, "and connecting` means between 4one V@string iiand 'another" adapted toV intercepttsubmarine craft travel` draggedv upon by said craft, to 'drawone` or more'mines of the adjacent connected strings into close proximity tof-said'craft-to1facili'- sion of the f lined to such means, as other interI'nedi'ate'de-l f L vices may be employed between:theyerticalvy series `of mines"vr to. intercept 'submarines and .e Y

ywhen'.en'g'agedby samefdrawjthe latter intoff I ing-"submerged fand' whenfengagedandiVVV Y 2. An eXplosive boom adapted for catching vand destroying submarine craft, comprising a plurality of vertical strings of mines, said strings being spaced apart from one another, connecting means between one string and another adapted to intercept submarine craft traveling submerged, and anchoring means for each string of mines Y* adapted to normally maintain said strings in position but to allow of the ready displacement of the same, when drag upon the connecting means by a traveling Vessel occurs substantially as and for the purpose def scribed.

. 3. An explosive boom adapted for catch- V .ing and destroying submarine craft, comprising a plurality of vertical strings of mines, said strings being spaced apart from one another, means connecting together pairs of the vertical strings, adapted to intercept submarine craft traveling submerged, each connected pair of strings being separate from the others, and anchoring means attached to the strings of mines in each connected pair, adapted to normally maintain said strings in position, but to allow of the ready displacement of the same, when drag upon the connecting means by a traveling vessel occurs, substantially as and for the strings in pairs, each connected kpair being separate from the adjacent pairs, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ARTHUR ADKINS. Witnesses:

GEORGE LESTER, R. W. C. TAYLOR.

V(opies of this patent may be obtained forr've cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

f Washington, D. C. 

